A Heartbeat Away - Michael Palmer [78]
The man who answered the door to 3E was short, fat, bearded, balding, and, he had told her over the phone, recently divorced for the fourth time. Of all her professional contacts, Gottfried Sliplitz had proven to be one of the most useful. When they first met, Sliplitz was an analyst with the Health and Human Services Agency in Rockville, Maryland. Angie was researching a story about salmonella contamination at a local drug manufacturing plant, and Sliplitz was a source. Within minutes of her concluding their first interview, the affable German professed his love for her. To prove it, he falsified documents that gave her unprecedented access to plant employees and corporate records.
The story of greed gone bad and public safety ignored was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It didn’t win, but she came close to winning a jail sentence for contempt of court, for not giving up her contact at the HHSA. She knew never to turn on a source—especially one like Gottfried Sliplitz. As a result of that code, she had come perilously close to jail for contempt on several other occasions as well. Now she needed the man’s help again. And with his adoration for her still in bloom, he was more than willing to oblige.
“You look vonderful, liebchen. Can you come in for a while?” Gottfried asked, his eyes begging the way a puppy might plead for a pat.
“Thanks for the offer, Gottfried, but I don’t have time. Were you able to get me what I need?”
“I am chief analyst for ze New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene,” Gottfried said. “Big step up from Rockville. Good money, too.”
“Strange name, though.”
“It could have been vurse. Ve are also responsible for dog licenses, developmental disabilities, und STD prevention, to name just a few.”
He extracted a manila envelope from a drawer and handed it to her. “With these papers, you are officially an investigator in our department.”
Angie kissed Sliplitz on the cheek and hugged him.
“You’re the best, Gottfried. I promise, soon as I can I’ll make it up to you.”
“On a date?”
She smiled at him.
“I’ve just started seeing a terrific man. Besides, I need to keep our relationship professional. Think of what could happen if we turned sour? I would lose a dear friend and an invaluable resource.”
“I’ll take ze risk.”
“But I won’t. Look, I have lots of friends I can hook you up with,” she promised. “Just not right now.”
“You break my heart.”
She kissed him again on the cheek.
“Luckily, you heal quickly. Between us, right? Nobody knows about this?”
“Between us,” Sliplitz confirmed.
Angie gave the man a final embrace before she departed. As she headed down the staircase she passed a man on his way up. He was wearing dark sunglasses, and grunted a greeting as he brushed past her.
Once on the street, Angie flagged another cab. As they pulled away, headed downtown, the driver of the Town Car parked behind them set his cell phone aside and followed.
CHAPTER 34
DAY 5
2:00 P.M. (EST)
Angie stepped from her cab into a world as far from the rolling plains and bison ranches of western Kansas as imaginable.
Chinatown.
The lower Manhattan neighborhood featured pungent odors, tightly packed shops and apartments, cracked sidewalks, brick buildings with red-painted fire escapes, double-parked trucks casually blocking traffic, and nerve-shaking noise from blaring horns and a dozen active construction sites. Storefront signage was in Chinese with a smattering of English subtitles. Many of the goods displayed in windows underneath neon signs were unlikely to be found in any other part of the city. Fruit stands, fish markets, and shops selling knickknacks to tourists lined the narrow, winding, overcrowded streets.
Angie stood in the